The present invention relates to a braking device for a pickup arm of a disc player, i.e., a phonograph record player, a video disc player or the like.
Conventionally, a pickup arm of a phonograph record player is pivotally supported for horizontal and vertical swings about its pivoted end so that a stylus of a pickup cartridge carried on the other end thereof can track the groove of a record disc. The pickup arm is raised or lowered by means of an arm lifter. Such pickup arm has a problem that an accidental horizontal swing movement of the arm occurs when the arm is away from the record disc or in a non-playing mode since the pickup arm is always capable of swinging horizontally. More specifically, the pickup arm in most cases is subjected to a counterforce exerted by electric leads or external forces by an inside-force-canceller, etc. These forces, if acting on the pickup arm during its vertical movement toward and away from the record disc, can make it impossible to raise or lower the arm to a predetermined position, causing starting of the record playing at an undesired position of the record disc. Furthermore, when the record playing is discontinued and then the pickup arm is in a pause position or upper limit position where the pickup arm rests on the arm lifter, another problem is encountered in that the pickup arm is easily displaced by inadvertently touching the pickup arm. Such is the case with the video disc player.
The known simple method for suppressing such a superfluous horizontal movement is to provide a damping member to the upper surface of the arm lifter. The method is, however, not sufficient to prevent the horizontal movement, for example, when the pickup arm is touched inadvertently.